How are start-ups getting bluffed by readymade clone scripts?

How are start-ups getting bluffed by readymade clone scripts?

Problems faced by Start-ups.

We as start-up founders are “A one-man show.” We have to wear many hats and play many roles. This is the story of my service booking start-up, where I am not only the idea conceiver but a bucket full of responsibilities.

I started out with organizing the company, and then acted as the first salesman, fund-raiser, paymaster, quartermaster, logistics, project manager, tech guy and many others. All the start-up founders are strapped for resources. We have to look out for the best method to promote our products. I was laser focused on massive growth and the first thing on my to-do list was to fabricate a successful Service Providing Platform. When I say Service Providing Platform, Thumbtack is a very successful small task or service providing platform.

It is a platform where users can hire local services like nanny services, web services, personal training, DJ, photography, etc. Thumbtack also provides quotations and verified reviews using mobile apps and websites. I needed something like Thumbtack, but I realized that Thumbtack is a huge and a multi-million dollar business I cannot afford to develop anything like that.

How do I develop a software for my business?

Here is the thing, there are many Ready-made clone scripts available for each leading online business. In my case, I used Thumbtack Clone; you might need an Airbnb clone, Alibaba clone, Facebook clone, or Uber clone depending on the format of your business. These are platforms which helps you to start an online business like popular website or app. When we talk about a clone, it’s not a copy or pirated version of the site but its just a marketing term used to the referred site. Companies selling ready-made clone scripts claim that these scripts have all the facilities for users and the site admin/owner can manage the whole website and mobile apps from website admin area.

Ready-made Clone Scripts – The master scam!

At first, I thought of buying it, but then I took some time to study. I came across two different types of script providers, one is the Ready-made but cheap scripts, which are unsuccessful and used by many (They sell thumbtack clone or uber clone for as less as $10,000, some even sell it at less then $1500) and the second is the fantastic tailor-made scripts, which are very expensive. And like every other decision I was stuck again

A typical, Start-up owner situation, where we want everything, and we cannot afford much. Coming back to the point, I needed a service providing platform which is affordable and not used by many. After searching and finding through many service providers, I learned that these ready-made clone scripts are not helping you, they strategically earn from your earning by having the copyrights on their name. In addition to this, there are technical problems with Ready-made clone scripts too.

These Ready-made clone scripts have bad coding quality and no standard framework. These scripts are not your platform; these are just a licensed version with no copyrights of your own. On one of the sites, I read that these platforms are 100% customizable, but they are not, I will tell you why.

Ready-made scripts are always complicatedly coded, no matter how tech-smart your developers are, you will have to go to the makers to get it customized.

Each small customization will cost you very big.

So, what I am trying to say is, the base platform is cheap and will look amazing on its first look, but while you start working on it, you will face many problems right from the cost of customizing to security.

What about security?

Talking about security, I learned that ready-made clone scripts give a domain license so that you cannot run the script or software on multiple domains. How? They add a piece of code to make sure you run the clone script on one domain. This means they always have control and access to your business, which makes your platform vulnerable, unsecured and open, even when you are paying an enormous cost for your business security.

What’s the solution?

While I understood all these problems, I came across a solution which was precisely the way I wanted, an in-between thing, a Ready-To-Go platform. This READY-TO-GO platform is a combination of Ready-made clone and Custom development clone.

A ready-to-go platform consists of separate modules which are developed for a website or an application. Each module is prepared separately, without any UI in place. For example, this platform has Sign up, Login, Search, User profile and other generic modules which are the standard or say necessary requirements for any project. Thus, when developers start developing your project, they can utilize these essential readymade codes and begin the development. This makes it easy and less time consuming for the developers to build your project.

These modules have been rigorously tested and proved for the highest quality. All kinds of testings are done to ensure that the final deliverable works perfectly.

As there is no UI for the modules, it is possible to cater to specific needs. Which means that your product is going to be customized just for you and you will have benefits of copyrights, custom development, and readymade solutions minus its cons. It’s not cheap ready-made, nor it’s expensive, and it’s secure. This in-between platform is called Ready-To-Go platform.

This is how now I have a platform which is my own, not expensive and it is secured.

I hope my research can help you start your next service booking start-up without much of hassle.